Work To Lower Lake Hartwell to 660 Continues

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is continuing its efforts to get LakeHartwell back down to full pool.

As of Thursday, Hartwell’s elevation had dropped to 662.6 feet, still about two and a half feet above the full pool level of 660 feet.

According to Corps Spokesman Billy Birdwell, the Corps is continuing to aggressively work to bring down the levels at Hartwell.

Birdwell said that also requires lowering both Lakes Russell and Thurmond in an effort to help control flooding further downstream.

“Avoiding flooding is one of our primary missions,” Birdwell said earlier this week. “We’re bringing Thurmond down in a controlled manner. It’s down to 330.7ft msl so we’re getting it real close to full pool.”

He said once Thurmond is at full pool, the Corps will work on bringing Lake Russell down.

“Of course, that brings Thurmond up so that means we have to continue to pass it through Thurmond to get it back where it needs to be,” he said.

Once Thurmond and Russell are at full pool, then Birdwell said the Corps starts working on HartwellLake to get it back down to where it needs to be.

Birdwell said that it will take several weeks before all three lakes on the upper SavannahRiver basin are back at full pool.